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Boundary IDs

Request

Thank you for your email of 5 April 16, requesting the following information from Ordnance Survey in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000:

The data published does not contain the IDs (either ONS or GSS) for the new areas, so therefore I don't judge this to have met my initial request.

For the request to be met, I will need this data with the ONS or GSS IDs included. To state that "there will be no change to the boundary IDs" isn't meaningful in the case where two wards have merged, as there is no way of knowing what of the two IDs will be kept.

Our response

I confirm that Ordnance Survey does hold this information, however, your request falls within the ‘Information accessible to applicant by other means’ exemption under Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000.

We consider this exemption applies because the requested information is now available to the public free to download on the OS website.

Under our duty to provide advice and assistance as stipulated in Section 16 of the FOIA I can inform you that due to the complex nature of the OS Boundary-Line publication process, it is not possible to provide changed polygons in the OS Boundary-Line product before the Election Boundaries change. We are able to publish the new boundary polygons separately on the website as forward-dated boundary polygons, but because these polygons have not been through the production process they do not yet have their own IDs. This is why it was not possible to give you the new IDs in relation to FOI16653.

Public InterestSection 21 is an absolute exemption and no public interest test is applicable.

Internal review

Your enquiry has been processed according to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000. If you are unhappy with our response, you may request an internal review with our FOI Internal Review Officer, by contacting them as follows:

Please include the reference number above. You may request an internal review where you believe Ordnance Survey has:

Failed to respond to your request within the time limits (normally 20 working days)

Failed to tell you whether or not we hold the information

Failed to provide the information you have requested

Failed to explain the reasons for refusing a request

Failed to correctly apply an exemption or exception

The FOI Internal Review Officer will not have been involved in the original decision. They will conduct an independent internal review and will inform you of the outcome of the review normally within 20 working days, but exceptionally within 40 working days, in line with the Information Commissioner’s guidance.

The FOI Internal Review Officer will either: uphold the original decision, provide an additional explanation of the exemption/s applied or release further information, if it is considered appropriate to do so.

Appeal to Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)If, following the outcome of the internal review you remain unhappy with our response, you may raise an appeal with the Information Commissioner’s Office at: